Netherlands? None of this, now only worth the Netherlands!

If your dream is to know Amsterdam, your dream is not to know the Netherlands. What do you mean? That's right. It turns out that the official name of the country in northwestern Europe is the Netherlands - just like Brazil is officially the Federative Republic of Brazil - and the authorities are willing to spread their official name. So no Holland, but Netherlands.

And the campaign has already begun. Ministries, sports institutions, cultural institutions and major cities in the country have launched a marketing campaign aimed at making the Netherlands a thing of the past. The national football team, the so-called “mechanical orange” will no longer bear the name Netherlands and will be promoted as the Netherlands. In addition, the country's official tourism website will abandon the name “Holland.com”.

At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, will the country be named the Netherlands, and at the Eurovision Festival in Rotterdam in May next year? Also Netherlands. “Three days and 180 million viewers is a fantastic opportunity for communication and marketing, ” said Arcadia consultant Carolien Gehrels in an interview with Dutch News.

For football lovers used to calling the mechanical orange team to calm down, the orange color should remain the official one. As for the tulip, an international symbol, it is not yet clear whether it will continue in this role or be replaced.

Country goes far beyond Holland

The Netherlands - or rather, the Netherlands! - is known worldwide, but in fact only two provinces carry this name, North Holland and South Holland, which have dominated the region for a long time, but there are 10 other provinces and territories that even gave the country its plural name “Netherlands”. The official name, incidentally, came from the geographical location, partly below sea level.

The decision to use marketing actions to promote the nation's official name also aims to boost the country's tourism to cities other than Amsterdam, which is already a famous destination for tourists traveling to and around Europe. Although it is the current capital of the country and territory of North Holland, there are other cities, such as The Hague, which is the administrative headquarters in South Holland, with great tourism potential. Tourism is one of the main economic activities of the country that currently has 17 million inhabitants. In 2017, the tourism industry handled the equivalent of $ 370 billion.